This week, I found myself wandering into the basement looking for something very specific. Not a holiday decoration. Not a tool. Not one of the dozens of boxes labeled “Miscellaneous” that seem to multiply every time I move.
I was looking for a VHS tape.
The funny part is that I don’t own a VHS player. I haven’t owned one in years. But I had a feeling there was still at least one tape hiding somewhere downstairs, quietly making the trip from house to house without anyone questioning why. Sure enough, there it was.
It turned out to be a Disney movie that has apparently earned permanent residency in my moving boxes. I honestly couldn’t tell you why that one survived when so many other things didn’t. It wasn’t my favorite movie growing up, and I certainly haven’t watched it in decades. Yet somehow it has packed itself into every move I’ve made. As a REALTOR®, I see this all the time.
Someone decides it’s finally time to move. They begin opening closets, cleaning out the basement, or sorting through the attic, and suddenly they discover things they haven’t thought about in years. A box of VHS tapes. Computer cables for devices they no longer own. Instruction manuals for appliances that disappeared sometime during the last presidential administration. Holiday decorations that nobody particularly likes but everyone feels oddly responsible for keeping.
Those things aren’t still around because anyone made a conscious decision to preserve them. They simply survived. Every move, every basement cleanout, every promise that “this is the year we’re going to get organized”… somehow they quietly made the cut.
Maybe that’s one of the defining experiences of being a Gen X homeowner.
We grew up during one of the fastest periods of technological change in history. We watched records become cassettes, cassettes become CDs, CDs become MP3s, and eventually all of it disappeared into the cloud. We adapted to every new technology along the way, but our basements didn’t always get the memo. Mine apparently decided to become a museum.
There’s something oddly comforting about stumbling across those forgotten artifacts. They remind us of where we’ve been, even if they no longer have any practical purpose. Not everything needs to be saved, but not everything needs to be thrown away, either. The trick is figuring out which things are still serving your life and which things are along for the ride because they’ve always been.
That’s a conversation I have with homeowners all the time. Downsizing isn’t really about getting rid of things. It’s about deciding what deserves a place in the next chapter.
A Very Important Gen X FAQ
Q: Are you telling me to throw away my VHS tapes?
Absolutely not.
I’m simply asking why you’ve moved them three times despite not owning a VHS player anymore.
Those are two very different conversations.
If you’re starting to think your home no longer fits the way you live—or you’re just curious about what your options look like—I’d be happy to help.
Lesley Lambert, REALTOR®
Park Square Realty
413-575-3611
[email protected]
And if you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, you might also like my first Gen X homeowner post, “A Very Specific Gen X Test,“ where one Patty Smyth lyric unexpectedly turned into a conversation about downsizing.
If Gen X nostalgia is your thing, you might also enjoy my Substack essay, I Died of Dysentery on the Oregon Trail, where I look back at growing up during the strange, wonderful analog years.
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